1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices and apparatus for dispensing fluent material into containers. More particularly this invention relates to material. dispensing devices which can fill bags, boxes or other containers with sand, cement, rocks, soil, grain, chemicals or other fill material.
2. Background of the Invention
Frequently, it is desirable to fill bags, boxes or other containers which have small openings with a large volume of fluent material. As used herein, "fluent material" means material which flows or is capable of flowing and usually made up of relatively small particles, such as powders, sand, gravel, rock, pebbles, dirt, soil, limestone waste, cement, grain, fertilizer or other granular or powdery material. For example, when a flood occurs, sandbags are needed promptly, but current equipment does not readily fulfill the need to quickly and efficiently fill bags with fluent material such as sand. Filling sandbags is particularly a problem because it generally requires extensive manpower and further requires more time than emergency situations usually allow. Also, sandbag filling equipment, to be effective, should be portable, as well as easy to maintain. Among the most important considerations when performing such a task is to fill the sandbags efficiently by maximizing the speed by which containers are filled and minimizing the spillage of material outside the containers.
Currently, when fluent materials need to be packaged in bags or other containers the typical method is for front-end loader tractors to dump the fluent material in piles at a location where the containers will be filled and used. Then, workers typically fill the bags manually using shovels either by dumping the fluent material directly from the Shovels into the bags or by employing a funnel-like tool. Such a method of filling bags is very inefficient. Not only does this method require more than one worker (one to shovel the fluent material and one to hold the bag), it is also excessively slow. Furthermore, spillage occurs frequently due to the fluent material falling off the shovel and onto the ground both while transporting the fluent material from the stockpile and while transferring the fluent material into the bag. These inefficiencies combine to make using shovels to manually fill bags with. fluent materials an expensive and time-consuming endeavor.
Filler material dispensing devices have been known for some time as is evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,836,421, 1,783,423, 1,732,271, and 4,073,410. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,421 teaches a transportable tank container which includes a dispensing chute and an agitating mechanism for loosening hardened particles which clog the dispensing chute. However, this device is completely enclosed and is not suited for efficient high-volume filling due to its encapsulated design, and also it employs only a single dispensing chute. Further, an operator must activate the dispensing chute with his or her hands which limits the operator's ability to manipulate the container to be filled.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,783,423 teaches a hand-activated device used to hold and dispense material, specifically, chemical feed. This invention also is not suited for high-volume dispensing due to the fact that it only employs one dispensing chute and the dispensing chute release is hand-operated.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,732,271 teaches a portable device used to hold and dispense material, particularly for the purpose of filling such material into containers. Though this device includes a foot-operated chute release pedal, it is not suited for efficient high-volume filling due to the fact that it only employs one dispensing chute and lacks a table for supporting the bags being filled with fluent material. Furthermore, this invention relies on a counter-balance weight to close the chute to stop the flow of fluent material, which has the disadvantage of not closing quickly, particularly when a relatively heavy material is being dispensed, such as sand, cement, or rocks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,410 teaches a portable apparatus used to hold and dispense material, particularly to dispense filler material evenly into trenches. This apparatus is not suited for efficient high-volume filling of containers since its design does not allow a user to easily attach a bag or container to the dispensing chute. Furthermore, this apparatus' dispensing chute release is operated by a hand-lever.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provided a portable fluent dispensing device with a foot-operated dispensing mechanism that can be used to efficiently fill a large number of bags or containers with fluent material in a short amount of time. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide material dispensing devices for filling containers without the operator needing to use his or her hands to activate the dispensing mechanism. It is yet another object to provide a dispensing gate which can readily close without clogging.